Retailers are successfully using mobile apps to attract the lion's share of consumer attention.

According to Flurry, retailers' share of consumer time spent in shopping apps grew to 27 percent of the total in December, up from 15 percent a year prior.

Daily deals took the biggest hit in the period, falling 7 percentage points to 13 percent, which may point to growing consumer fatigue with deals sites. But online marketplaces— sites like eBay and Amazon— also slipped, to 20 percent from 25 percent in December 2011.

The rise of retailers' mobile apps represents the effort of bricks-and-mortar stores, under the threat of e-commerce rivals, to engage their customers in new ways. It may also be an attempt to curb the threat of "showrooming."

It's not certain if this will be enough to halt the inexorable rise of e-commerce. It's also unclear if consumers are also spending more money in retailers' apps. But at the very least, traditional retailers have gained consumers' attention, which is a start.